If you hear noises in your attic at night time, there's a good
chance that you have a wild animal or two living in your attic
and maybe scratching on your roof. I'll do a quick analysis of
the types of noise you might hear in your attic or roof at
night:
Learn more about these animals: raccoons
in attic - rats in
attic - mice in
attic - possums in
attic - bats in attic
Thumping: If you hear thumping in your attic at night,
it's most likely a larger animal, such as a raccoon or opossum,
engaged in jumping from one area of the attic to another,
actively shoving or destroying something, or dragging something
heavy.
Scratching: Most animals scratch in the attic, to clear
out space for nesting, or maybe to bury food. Raccoons, rats,
mice, and squirrels all scratch. You're most likely dealing with
a nocturnal animal since you hear noises at night, so it may not
be squirrel. The size of the animal is hard to tell - many
factors influence the volume of the noise. A little mouse
scratching directly on the sheetrock right above your head in a
quiet house will sound louder than a big raccoon scratching a
wood beam somewhere far off in the attic, in a house with a lot
of background noise.
Rolling ball noises: Likely squirrels or rats rolling
nuts.
Vocal noises: Most likely raccoon. Rats, mice, opossums,
and squirrels don't make vocal noises in the attic. This is a
good clue that you've got a raccoon or a family of coons. Read
below for the details regarding raccoon noises.
Raccoon Noises: It’s often possible to determine the type
of animal by the noises alone. Raccoons are the largest of these
animals, so the sound is often “heavy” – more like thumping or
walking than the light scurrying of a rat. Additionally,
raccoons are primarily nocturnal, so the noises occur at night.
Most of the noise might happen shortly after dusk, when the
animal leaves the attic, and again sometime in the night when it
returns. However, the timing of the noise may vary, and
sometimes raccoons will stir during the daytime. In addition,
raccoons are often vocal, and it’s possible to hear their
various growls, chirps, cries, and other noises. If there’s a
raccoon family, consisting of a female and a litter of baby
raccoons, you will very often hear the very distinct and unique
crying and whining of the babies, surefire evidence of raccoon
presence.
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Read my articles about raccoon removal tactics for: noises
in the attic, or noises
in the ceiling, or noises
in the wall.
If you are hearing lighter, faster, pitter-patter noises, or
scurrying up the wall, or daytime noises, and don't think you
have a raccoon, but maybe rats, squirrels, etc, this website has
detailed information on every different species of pest wildlife
that inhabit homes: www.wildlife-removal.com.
So, scratching sounds in the attic at night could be from a
number of different nocturnal animals. It could even be from the
heating/cooling system, or branches of a nearby tree scraping
against the roof. But most of the time, it's an animal, and it's
pretty easy to tell when the noises are coming from something
living. The methods used to solve problems by a number of
animals, such as squirrels or rats are similar to raccoons in
some ways - find the openings, remove the animals, fix the
openings, clean the mess - but in other important ways,
different animals require different approaches. This website
really only deals with raccoons, but I've written guides for
several animals, so either click the above wildlife-removal
site, or you can even email me if you have any questions.
What sound do baby raccoons make - The sound baby raccoons make
is a complicated on, full of chitters, warbles, vibrations, and
screeches. The chitter is the most characteristic sound, and
people can often verify the presence of babies just from the
noise alone. If this is the sound you are hearing inside your
walls, remember where it is. To properly catch and remove the
adult, finding the babies is important. You can use the babies
in a partitioned trap to lure in the mother. This is one of the
most effective trapping methods for catching live raccoons.
Sometimes you have no choice but to catch the mother first. If
this is the case, and the kits are hidden in an inaccessible
wall, knowing where they are by sound will help you when you
have to cut an opening in the exterior of the home. You have to
remove the babies; there is no other choice. If you leave them
in the building to starve, you will still need to find them
later when they start to stink. The only way to get rid of the
odor from a dead body is the remove the dead body. If you wait
for it to go away, you’ll be waiting months.
If you do hear the noises of a raccoon
nest of babies, you'll probably notice that it's coming
from above, in the ceiling, from the attic space, or maybe the
walls, but never below, like in the basement or crawlspace below
a house. Females have an instinct to make the nest up high, and
the same goes for many other animals, like squirrels.
Read more articles about raccoons:
About Raccoons
How Do I Know If
There Are Baby Raccoons In the Attic?
How to Keep
Raccoons Out of My Bird Feeder
How to Catch a
Raccoon with a Snare Pole
...........
Real reader Situation: David, I had a new roof put on
last fall and just a few weeks ago I heard something on my roof
(tri-level home) and I'm hearing noise in my attic at night. It
was right by my bedroom wall. I went downstairs and looked out
the front window and sure enough was a raccoon bending over the
gutter. The next day I had my neighbor look in the garage
ceiling (storage) he didn’t see any holes, than he looked in the
ceiling of my other bedroom to look at the roof and no holes
there. The raccoon came back last night but I couldn’t see him.
I only have a few evergreens close to the house could he be
climbing up those to get to the roof. I don’t know what to do.
Should I ask the roofer to come back to the house and inspect my
roof for any holes, would they try to climb through a vent, I
really I’m starting to worry about this. I don’t want them
coming into the house. Any suggestions? Thank you, Kathy
Are those bumping and scratching sounds in the attic, or on the
roof, or both? If it's inside the house, then the animal already
got in, of course. Sometimes raccoons can open holes that are
surprisingly hard to find, such as vents or soffit covers that
open and close. If you don't have an animal inside, then just
double check to make sure that everything is secure. If you do,
you may want to hire a pro in your city to remove the animal(s).
Article topics include: hearing sounds at night in the attic,
noise coming from the attic or ceiling, hearing noises in the
attic at night, nocturnal sounds from animals in the attic,
crawlspace, walls, or ceiling at nighttime.
Wildlife Education - Information, Advice, About Sounds in the
Attic at Night